Personnel Selection at Acme Manufacturing - Essay Example

Introduction

This paper focuses on outlining the elements found on the report that was presented to the CEO through an external consultant to the Board’s Compensation Committee. In the first place, the paper develops, analyzes as well explains the necessities that could be used in the process of personnel selection for management positions in the company. In addition, the paper determines and explains the specific methods through which job analysis, job design, position description, and specification for management positions are prepared. To sum up, it explains and evaluates the relative worth of management jobs at the company and determine a structure of compensation to help retention and career management of this crucial element of the human resource of the company.

Personnel selection

Personnel selection is a process that is logical in decisions making over which individuals are hired when there is a vacant position in the company. It has the key responsibility of the identification and the recruitment of individuals with relevant knowledge, skills, and capabilities about a certain role to efficiently realize the objectives of the company (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2013). Through this process, administrators are able to differentiate between a qualified and unqualified candidate for the position.

There are various stages involved in the process of personnel selection (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2013). The different stages assist the to company achieve adequate information concerning the candidate to a particular job. At every stage, some of the applicants of the jobs are rejected due to the lack of right knowledge or skills required for the job applied for. The HR manager needs to use the right system for personnel selection that conforms to the needs of the company and assist in the selection of the right applicant for the position. In order to achieve an effective selection process, the following should be considered by the company:

First, adequate job applicants should have applied for the position to have the best choice among the applicants. Second, the Human Resource Manager will select the most qualified applicant. Third, the right job specification chart should be developed in advance so that all applicants’ knowledge, skills, and capabilities of the applicants can be compared. The success of all organizations highly depends on the quality on the candidates that are picked for different vacant positions. Due to this reason, the selection process is the most important part in the management of the company.

The next step after the review of the applications in the process of recruitment is interviews. There are different forms of interviews and some of them include structured, unstructured, situational and behavioral interviews. The recommended form is structured interviews since they allow for easier comparison between applicants. Discrimination during an interview should be highly avoided. Questions that are not related to the job interview to candidates should be excluded since they are illegal. The Human Resource management should establish standardized questions for new jobs in management.

Personality test is an approach that measures multiple traits and can be used as a standardized test to offer information concerning the psychology of an individual. Different assessments methods can be used to measure the ability of a candidate to perform the required duties. The most suitable method of assessment should be a test that can both measure the physical and mental capabilities of an individual.

Job Analysis

Job analysis can be defined as the process through which a job is examined in order to highlight various circumstances and components required for performance. Job analysis is an important tool in human resource and it is vital for each person to properly understand the jobs allocated to them as well as the comparative job disparities on the basis of their level of knowledge, skills, difficulty, and responsibility (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2013). Job analysis involves the study and collection of information concerning the operations of a job including the responsibilities related to the position. Adequate information as well as documentation of job analysis, job description, and specification are significant requirements for an effective operation of the Human Resource (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2013).

Different companies apply different methods in doing a job analysis. Examples of such methods include:

First, personal observation; under this method, an individual keenly observes the employees with concern during their job performance and creates a long list of duties the employees performed including the qualities needed to accomplish such duties. The information collected forms the basis the prepared job analysis. This approach is important under some specific conditions but not others.

Second, real job performance; under this approach, the individual responsible to formulate the job analysis normally performs the task individually. During the performance of the job, the person responsible develops a clear idea concerning the required skills, the amount of difficulty in the job, as well as the efforts needed to accomplish the job.

Third, the interview method; this approach considers performing an interview to different employees doing the job. A group of experts are responsible for conducting the interview. Questions associated with different aspects of the job, level of skills needed, and levels of difficulty related to the job are asked to gather information about the duties. The preparation of the job analysis depends on the information collected.

Fourth method is called the critical incident. Under this method, workers are requested to list some of the critical occurrences that they have faced during the performance of a job. This information offers concerns over the level of difficulty and skills required to handle the incidents. This method emphasizes on the importance of the position.

The fifth method is the cheapest method in conducting a job analysis. The approach considers a set of questionnaires designed to gather different information and data within a short time. The set of the questionnaire may either have open-ended questions, multiple choices, or the two. The preparation of the job analysis is done in relation to the information collected. The only disadvantage with this method is that some of the respondents may not be have the ability to answer the questions fully.

Job Design

Besides job analysis, performance in a job requires decisions on the order of job contents and is known as job design (Singh, 2008). The logical sequence in a job analysis is what may be referred to as a job design. Job design entails the specification of contents in a job, the methods of work used in the performance as well as the relationship of jobs to each other in the organization.

Methods of job design

Job design has four basic approaches used. They include:

First, job simplification; this is a method of design, which divides jobs into smaller constituents and then assigned to the entire employees in the job. Job simplification requires that positions be subdivided into smaller units that can be analyzed. The subdivided section normally involves fewer operations. Employees are then assigned to these subdivisions as their total jobs.

Second, the method job enlargement enlarges the job in a horizontal way. It expands the scope of the job by increasing various operations involved in the job as well as the frequency by which the sequence in the job repeats itself (Singh, 2008). Through growing the number of duties an employee performs, the scope and diversity of the job is increased.

Third, job rotation; this method can be referred to as the transfer of an employee from a single job to the other. No changes are made on the jobs; however, only employees are rotated within different jobs. This allows an employee to relieve himself from the monotony and boredom and improves the skills of an employee in relation to different jobs.

Forth, job enrichment. This is an approach used currently by different organizations and it is directly an extension of Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory of motivation (Singh, 2008). The method is established on the assumption that for one to motivate an employee, the position has to offer an opportunity for acknowledgement, achievement, accountability, growth and development. Mainly, the idea is to reinstate to jobs the elements of interest that were removed under thorough specialization. The aim of job description is to try to elaborate the job using factors that were characterized by Herzberg as key motivators of a job.

Job Description

Job description is a wide term that describes the duties, purpose and responsibilities related to a position or job. The basis of a job description is on the key responsibilities and tasks in a concise and a clear manner to aid an efficient comparison of different jobs for the purpose of evaluations (Singh, 2008). Correct and recent job descriptions maximize the effectiveness of an employee as well as the production since it outlines accountabilities and responsibilities of a particular position. The contents of a job are clearly and concisely addressed in a job description (Singh, 2008). Besides this, a job description assist in attracting and retaining employees with the right talents since it portrays a company with good reputation.

Job Specification

Under job specification, the listings of an individual’s qualifications are observed as essential for satisfactory performance. In most cases, job specifications are normally utilized during the selection and recruitment of employees and are not important during evaluations of positions (NL, 2012). However, some attributes of a person such as education and experience as well aptitude may occur in both job specification and job description.

Job specifications address personal attributes desired in a job. It outlines the least human qualities that are required in the job. These requirements are normally developed for personal jobs in relation to the investigation made by the expert. However, in some cases, they rely on the validation of statistical procedures (NL, 2012). Job description is translated by job specifications into required necessary human qualifications that assist in employing the right candidate for the right position in order for the job to be performed in the best way. Among the contents of a job specification include, the required experiences and qualification for the job tittle, the required physical factors as well as attributes associated with them, mental and physical health of an individual, skills, family background as well as other characteristics of the job.

Job specification needs to be utilized as a guide towards the skills, knowledge and aptitude required for the performance of a particular job (NL, 2012). Therefore, job specification and job analysis form the basis through which staffing, selection and placements of individuals in an organization are done.

Compensation and Reward System

Business organizations are attracting new talent and skillful employees to available job opportunities. Individuals are attracted and motivated to work with organizations that offer its employees with the best compensation and reward system. As a company, Acme Manufactures is trying all ways to guarantee that it maintains its employees by offering and compensating them with the right benefits. In simple words, compensation can be termed as a reward offered to a person for the labor they have accomplished (NL, 2012). Among the different kinds of compensation offered comprise of direct financial, indirect financial and non-financial compensation (NL, 2012). Under direct financial compensation, the payment an individual receives is in form of salaries, bonuses or commission. On the other hand, indirect financial compensation is a reward given out of a contract that is created between the employer and the employees in form of benefits, leaves, and retirement plan as well as services to employees. Non-financial compensation can be described as the promotion advancement, recognition or development in career.

Retaining Employee

Many employees leave companies due to a number of reasons that a company may not be able to account for. Workers carry their individual reasons as to why they opt to stop working for a particular organization, be it finding a better opportunity that will satisfy their needs. Most companies are finding better ways to retain their potential employees since a lot has been invested in them in terms of training and resources (NL, 2012). Among the reasons as to why employees may leave one organization to the other may include; if an employees is not satisfied with the working environment, lack of sufficient training and response from the job, unsuitability of the individual in the job, and lack of advancement and opportunities of growth among other reasons.

Companies are spending more money and time in their recruitment strategy as part of a method in retaining employees. In addition, companies are also spending more time on employees that poses suitable talents for the organization and are doing so through reward systems or promotional pay. Most of the employees are motivated through the value they receive after performing.

Conclusion

The paper has fully analyzed and discussed the three elements that were presented by the CEO in relation to human resource at Acme Manufacturing. Various requirements that could be applied in the process of selecting the personnel for management positions in the company have been discussed. On the other hand, different methods to be used in job analysis, job design, position description, as well as job specification for management positions have been analyzed. Lastly, the paper has discussed and assessed the comparative worth of management jobs at the company and determined a compensation structure to help in retaining employees as well as career management.